NMI deserves a huge shout-out. I know that was a huge project for those guys, especially going in to the summer with all the other boat-builds going on in their facility. When picking up the boat a few days ago I was prepared to cut a very big check for all the work they did, knowing the water intrusion that I’ve been fighting for two seasons was finally a thing of the past but Michael told me to put my check book back in my pocket—I just about fainted….what a guy and what a wonderful gesture from a builder to make!!!!
The boat is a 2022. I purchased it with approx. 100 hours on the Suzukis. But the first thing I had to do when taking ownership of the boat was hire a professional to pump water out of the tanks. Not the way you’d want to start off a relationship with a new boat. In retrospect, I think that carbon canister plugged up two years ago and I’ve essentially been running a boat with un-vented fuel tanks for several seasons.
Yes, the Furuno NXT radar picks up birds though I put it on the boat for collision avoidance. Last summer, while running that Garmin, I almost ran in to two boats in Johnstone Straits in a thick fog. The Garmin Fantom radar did not paint a target when it absolutely should have… one of the boats was a 20 foot sailboat (skinny hull) but what the heck—it absolutely should have produced something on the screen….it did not.
I was really rolling the dice because after almost plowing in to that sailboat, I decided to run all the rapids in Cordero Channel from start to finish in a pea-soup fog. I think I pulled off that bit of silliness because no other boat owners would have been nuts enough to try that so I was the only boat on the water and the Garmin at least kept me off the rocks.
My Furuno NXT will paint a target if there are ducks on the water…. It’s so sensitive that sometimes it’s scary —-I had the same Furuno NXT on my Skagit Orca several boats ago and while crossing Q.C. Strait back to Hardy in pea-soup fog I mistook a flock of seagulls the radar painted for a cruise ship—-that’s how dramatic the target was it painted on the screen. I could hear the cruise ship so I knew something big was heading in my direction….scared the crap out of me
Solar panels—-I try not to hide those panels under an inflatable. With both a refrigerator and a freezer running (and piles of marine electronics) I need all the regenerative power I can get to keep the LiFePo batteries happy. I’ll sometimes keep a kayak up on the wheelhouse roof so it’s centered between the panels but I boat with a dog (or used to; I had to put her down last weekend) so I had to have my inflatable ready to go for beach assaults so the dog could do her business
This is generally where I keep it unless it’s blowing. Yes, it keeps me from running two rods but as I fish alone, one rod is all I can handle anyway
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